Sega leaks new details on games; PS2 emulation and Dreamcast games appearing on PSN

We’re all used to seeing developer leaks at some point. Whether it’s some art assets, beta footage, or just some general game details at some point someone on the dev or publishing side is going to accidentally or purposely leak some stuff. At times these leaks are on the small scale or at times they can be quite large like the infamous Ubisoft FTP leak a few years ago. Early this morning another leak happened thanks to Sega that not only shines some light on their internal projects along with featuring a few interesting morsels of info concerning key PlayStation products and services.

Back in early August Sega had a marketing meeting with SCEA and Sega put the notes of that meeting on their marketing website. It’s normal for stuff like this to be placed on internal websites but it’s obviously not supposed to be viewable by anyone. Amongst notes about projects like “Vancouver 2010”, “Alpha Protocol” and “Valkyria 1937” were some rather revealing details about the PlayStation motion device.

According to the marketing notes the PS3 motion device is set for a spring release in North America and possibly Europe while Japan will be getting the device in March. The spring release for the device isn’t anything too new since that window has been publicly mentioned by people at Sony and 3rd party companies. The one interesting note about the device in the meeting is that Sony plans on selling 4-5 million worldwide. Developers giving target numbers for their products isn’t anything too amazing but it looks like Sony is pretty confident in this new device, especially if that number is only supposed to be for next year alone. The only other detail worth noting concerning the motion device is that it mentions a September 1 date for when bundles and pricing details would be released so hopefully we’ll get another leak from Sega or another company soon if we don’t get the goods at TGS this week.

But what will probably blow the minds of many is that the Sega meeting notes also includes a section about Sony wanting to put all their PS2 games on the PlayStation Network. According to what was listed this was meant to be confidential and some of the examples listed, either by Sony or Sega, included PS2 games like GTA Vice City and Sonic being available to purchase on the PSN. If that sounds good then you should also be happy to hear that we could also be getting Dreamcast games on the PSN. According to Sega Sony requested a list of Dreamcast games from which they would pick the ones they would be most interested in having on the PSN. Sony seems to be very serious about this potential Dreamcast appearance on the PSN as Sony would give Sega marketing support i.e. money for a long period of exclusivity.

That isn’t all the PSN news as Sega is also looking in to offering select import games such as Yakuza in a special Japanese Import section. Not a lot was discussed about this but Sega did give a price of $9-39.99 for import titles.

If Sony can get PS2 games on the store along with Dreamcast games for a brief exclusive period that would be a major move for Sony. People have wanted PS2 games to be available on the store for a long ass time since BC was dropped and if we can download games like GTA or Shadow of the Colossus on the PSN that would be a win-win situation as it would please gamers along with giving Sony boatloads of money. If Sony puts Jet Set Radio and Space Channel 5 on the PSN then I'll be acting like this.

Other than a ton of PlayStation related goodness dropping there was also a few interesting tidbits about some of Sega’s upcoming games. If you’re looking forward to Bayonetta you may be happy to hear the game could be getting a Collectors Edition that comes with a Bayonetta figure which undoubtedly will be crap when it comes to quality. A demo for Bayonetta is also planned and could be released around Christmas.

Sega also seems to be quite keen on supporting PlayStation Home as they’re interested in releasing space for Iron Man 2 which would allow players to walk around Tony Stark’s lab. We could also see Home support for Alien vs. Predator as well along with AVP avatars and a potential hybrid release of the game which would come with the one of the AVP movies. I’m sure that must be excellent news for all 5 people who actually liked the AVP movies.

One last piece of info concerns Sega’s mascot and general game icon Sonic. It was just announced last week that Sega is planning a 2D, HD Sonic game but surprisingly no info concerning that project was in the meeting notes. Instead what was in the notes could incite happiness in Sonic fans everywhere as Sega is looking into releasing Sonic Anniversary, a release that would consist of all the old Sonic games on one Blu-ray disc. The notes go on to mention that this “Best of Sonic” could retail for $99 and that Sony is interested in getting exclusive game modes and power-ups for the PSN. $99 may be a bit much but if Sega delivers on giving players the classic Sonic games in a package that pay respect to the character and the franchise as a whole I’m sure many would be willing to lay down that cash.

As you can no doubt tell Sega seems to be doing some interesting things. While we like to bash the company for some of the silly crap they do every now and then it looks like they could be giving consumers some excellent products next year many of which have close ties key PlayStation services. I’m just interested to know what’s going on at Sega this morning and how many people are going to be fired over this leak.